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Bluffton Today, 11-09-2008

The one’s that didn’t get away

Hilton Head-born Vijay Viswanathan is am among 30 hunters taking aim at the Fourth-Annual Low Country Chapter Wheelchair and Wounded Warrior Deer Hunt in Yemassee.

It took some clever posturing but Vijay Viswanathan finally settled himself into the hunting blind located on an 8,000acre quail-hunting plantation on the outskirts of Yemassee.

To an unsuspecting deer, the demure blind looks like nothing more than a 5-foot tall, robust shrub.

For Viswanathan, it’s a voluntary, 4foot-long by- 5-foot-wide prison and the only place in the world he wants to be. The inside is cold, but a welcome reprieve from the chilled autumn winds blowing off of the convergence of the nearby Pocotaligo and Tullifinny rivers. A small slit at eye-level allows just enough room to posture a rifle with his chalky hands, while still leaving space to capture a glimpse of the cleared field in front of him. The truck and the guide that dropped him off are now gone —replaced by an eerie silence.

Even if he wanted to leave now, it would be downright impossible for him to maneuver through the reeds and muddy terrain back toward civilization. Confinement isn’t a major concern for the 23-year-old Hilton Head born Viswanathan — at least, not since a rappelling accident five years ago permanently confined his body to a wheelchair. It’s a slow process, but the mind will eventually adjust and adapt when locked inside a body that only half cooperates with the brain’s commands.

But only if you let it. Viswanathan, who now resides in the mountainous Colorado outpost of Breckenridge, was among 37 hunters taking part in the Fourth-Annual Low Country Chapter Wheelchair and Wounded Warrior Deer Hunt on Oct. 28 and Oct. 29 at Nemours Plantations just outside of Yemassee.

It wasn’t the likes of guys such as Viswanathan who inspired Mark Peterson to create the Lowcountry wheelchair hunt — it was Viswanathan, a close family friend. Peterson first stumbled on the idea of bringing the two-day event south after a taking part in a mobility-impaired hunt held in the Upstate, just outside of Greenville.

“I was heartbroken when I heard it happened,” said Bluffton resident Peterson about Viswanathan’s injury, which destroyed his T5 vertebrae.

In four years, Peterson’s version of the Lowcountry wheelchair hunt has grown from 12 hunters scouring out over six plantations to more than 30 hunters and 20 plantations.

Hunters came from throughout the United States to take part in the two-day festivities, which included a tribute to wounded Marines this year. Each one of them is more inspiring than the next. “He’s an absolutely inspirational young man,” Peterson said of Viswanathan, who he began to teach how to hunt when Vijay was 12 years old. The year following the injury the suffered while a freshman at Colorado State University was a dark one for Viswanathan. It wasn’t until Peterson took the wheelchair-bound teen hunting again that Viswanathan found restoration of his former life. “I’m still relearning myself by doing things that I love,” Viswanathan said between opening ceremonies and shooting demonstrations on the first day of the Safari Club hunt — hours before setting out for his secluded blind.

“I’m learning to innovate and push the envelope of what’s possible.” And anything is feasible. He’s scaled California’s El Capitan mountain and has shot elk in Telluride, Colo. Today, Viswanathan is an avid hunter and outdoorsman working for Paradox Sports in Boulder, Colo. But, as Viswanathan knows all too well, the mind can be fickle. After hours in the blind on day No. 1, he retired to a nearby hotel, unable to bag his first deer at the event inspired by him. The next morning, after cumbersomely stuffing himself with the help of a guide back into the blind, a buck finally presented itself — walking within an arm’s-length of the blind.

That’s when Viswanathan and his mind locked up. With more than a decade’s worth of experiences tucked under his hunting cap, Viswanathan is by no means a novelty hunter.

Buck fever, however, can grip just about any hunter. Eventually he mustered the will to fire. The presumably-injured deer scampered out of sight but was never found by the dogs or the guides that eventually returned to pick the hunter up at the blind.

“If I missed, that’s the first time I’ve ever missed,” Viswanathan lamented after returning to Nemours Plantation for the closing ceremonies.

While Viswanathan’s deer was getting the slip on him, other bucks weren’t quite as lucky.

Especially those that dare wander within rifle-range of wounded Iraq-war vet Eric Edmundson of New Bern, N.C. Using a specialized gun operated by blowing into a tube, Edmundson dropped a 6- and an 8- point deer on the first and second day of the hunt respectively. Edmundson, 28, suffered anoxic brain damage after a roadside bomb terribly injured him. He doesn’t function all that well and not without constant assistance, but that didn’t stop him from killing a pair of the 15 deer and one hog taken at the Lowcountry hunt. Viswanathan will return to the Palmetto State next year and attempt to claim his first Safari Club Wheelchair hunt deer. Having wheels for legs hasn’t slowed Viswanathan down. After all, there are plenty of other ways to roll through life. “Deer hunting is one of my vehicles for being out in nature,” Viswanathan said. “One of my vehicles.”

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Last modified: 01/05/09